SwiftVets.com

[fortdixlover]

Florida Democratic Congressman Alcee Hastings, labeled a "disgraced federal judge" by the APC, will play a prominent role in the election observing? The very same Hastings who was impeached by the U.S. House for taking bribes from the federal bench and for perjury, and subsequently convicted by the U.S. Senate on the charges and removed from office?

Is this insane?

-- FDL

Foreign Observers of US Vote Threaten 'Catastrophe,' Group Warns
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
August 30, 2004

http://www.cnsnews.com//ViewPolitics.asp?Page=\Politics\archive\200408\POL20040830a.html

(CNSNews.com) - When the U.S. State Department invited a team of international election observers to watch this year's American presidential election, it invited "scandal, fraud and corruption to the American electoral process," a conservative watchdog group has charged.

The American Policy Center (APC) is warning of a "catastrophe," in part because Florida Democratic Congressman Alcee Hastings, labeled a "disgraced federal judge" by the APC, will play a prominent role in the election observing. Hastings was elected July 9 as president of the division at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that will be charged with the task.

Hastings became Florida's first African American U.S. District Court judge in 1979, nominated by then President Jimmy Carter. But nine years later, Hastings was impeached by the U.S. House for taking bribes from the federal bench and for perjury. The U.S. Senate subsequently convicted Hastings on the charges and removed him from office.

"He is one of only a handful of judges ever to be impeached in the history of the U.S.," APC said in a press release.

Hastings exacted his revenge by winning his own seat in the U.S. House, in 1992. He still represents Florida's predominantly black 23rd district.

Tom DeWeese, president of the American Policy Center, was already opposed to the international body observing this year's U.S. election. Hastings' involvement in the matter, DeWeese, said, means "the outrage just got more outrageous."

"Not only has the State Department invited a team of unaccountable, foreign bureaucrats to meddle in our free elections, but these meddlers are headed by one of the most corrupt individuals in the U.S. Congress," DeWeese said. "While they're at it, why doesn't the State Department invite O.J. Simpson to head up the FBI crime lab?" he added.

APC also believes that Hastings' impartiality as head of an election observer team is compromised because of public comments he made about the upcoming presidential race.

Hastings represents Broward County, the epicenter of the recount controversy of 2000. He told the Associated Press on June 14, "Any way we cut it, these people [the Bush administration] are going to try and steal this election."

Hastings is also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, which pushed for international election observers and is one of the harshest critics of the Bush administration.

After introducing legislation in July to correct "the existing process for the certification of the presidential election," Hastings denied he was attempting to "rehash the 2000 selection of George Bush as president." However, his use of the word "selection" revealed the disdain that Hastings and members of the Congressional Black Caucus still have for the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that stopped the Florida ballot recount in 2000 and allowed Bush to claim the state's electoral votes and the presidency.

"This bill will ensure that what occurred in 2000 never happens again without members of Congress being able to raise objections during the certification of a state's electoral votes," Hastings added, referring to the failed attempts by members of the Congressional Black Caucus to stop Congress' electoral certification four years ago.

Last month, Hastings predicted all eyes would be on Florida.

"Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami-Dade counties will again be ground zero this November. The eyes of the world will again look down upon Florida," Hastings said.

His legislation, Hastings said, would guarantee "that a fair mechanism exists to ensure that every vote is not only counted, but actually counts."

But DeWeese sees the international monitoring of the U.S. elections as a threat to democracy.

"There is a political agenda at work here. The OSCE is not an unbiased team of observers. If the vote in Florida or many other states is as close as predicted, you can bet that Alcee Hastings and his army of foreign monitors will do everything in their power to affect the outcome to their liking," DeWeese said.

The APC critique of the State Department's invitation follows a similarly scathing attack by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). The former Libertarian Party presidential candidate warned on Aug. 16 that inviting international observers to watch the American election violated the principle of federalism.

"Unlike the other member states of the OSCE, the United States has a federalist system where no single national authority runs our elections," Paul wrote in an article on the Truth News website.

"Under Article II, presidential elections -- as opposed to congressional elections -- are run by the states themselves. Hence the Electoral College, which essentially gives us 50 state elections," he added. "Therefore the invitation was not Secretary [of State Colin] Powell's to extend."
Paul also accused the OSCE of having a "terrible record" when it comes to observing elections.

"In Bosnia in 1996, for example, the OSCE gave its seal of approval to parliamentary elections despite the fact that an impossible 107 percent of the possible voting-age population had voted," he wrote.

"In 1998, the OSCE observer team that was to monitor the cease-fire between the Serbs and Albanians was caught sending targeting information back to the U.S. and European Union in advance of the U.S.-led attack on Serbia," Paul added.

"This year, the OSCE approved the election of Mikheil Saakashvili in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia with a Saddam Hussein-like 97 percent of the vote! There are dozens more similar examples," Paul wrote.

Paul said much of the problem can be traced to U.S. involvement in other international issues.

"The real issue is the sovereignty the United States voluntarily gives up every time it joins an international organization like the United Nations or the OSCE. We have unwisely joined organizations like this so as to meddle in the elections of other member countries, but when they wish to meddle in ours, we cry 'foul,'" he wrote.

"We want it both ways -- to meddle in the affairs of other countries but to be immune from their meddling in ours. But it doesn't work that way. Having created this monster, it is now coming back to haunt us," Paul added.

"We send more than $25 million to the OSCE each year, financing almost ten percent of the organization's budget. It is time to end this waste of money. We need to end our membership and participation in the OSCE immediately," he wrote.

"When we undermine the sovereignty of other nations we undermine our own sovereignty as well," Paul concluded.

[neverforget]

Hastings is a Jimmy Carter who was caught.

[Mooncusser]

I'll take a guess at their conclusions on election.

If Kerry wins...an honest fair election.

If Bush wins...most corrupt election in U.S. history.